Random PowerPoint Timesavers: Part 1

What if I told you I could give you eight and a half hours back in your workweek? What would you do with this time? Create a plan for your next promotion? Take advantage of a four-day workweek? Perhaps, you’d simply be happy to make it home in time for dinner with the family. The possibilities are endless…

Well, I’m not saying I’ll save you eight hours because it sounds pretty “scammy” but I will share something else instead.  Searching for knowledge inefficiently is one of the number one causes of wasted time at work, according to a recent survey of 1000 American employees.

On average, those surveyed wasted about eight and a half hours per week solving problems through trial and error, reworking a previously incorrectly completed task, or searching the web for answers to a question.

I wonder how many of these hours are dedicated to PowerPoint specifically? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to Google “how to do ___ in PowerPoint”. After years of using this search phrase, it was like a bad drinking game where you add “in PowerPoint” to the end of every statement.

Thankfully, I’ve developed a hefty repertoire of tips, tricks, and hacks to give me some of my time back. I’ll be sharing some of my favorites with you in this new series, Random PowerPoint Timesavers.

Turn a Frequently Used PowerPoint into a Template

If you use PowerPoint as often as I do – which is a lot – you likely have a designated presentation that you use as a template for every new PowerPoint. Years ago, I had this presentation saved to my desktop so that it was easily accessible.

Whenever I needed to start a new presentation, I would double-click to open it and immediately go to “Save As” so that I could make a copy and keep my template intact.

Except for the one time I forgot.

I was nearly half an hour into making changes before I realized I had accidentally overwritten my beloved template. What a waste of time it was to get my template back to its original state! I know that some of you have been there too!

Well, never again do you have to worry about getting click-happy and skipping the crucial “Save As” step. When you save a presentation as a template, it will automatically open as a new version (usually titled “Presentation1”) leaving your template in pristine condition. Talk about a lifesaver. Follow the steps for this PowerPoint timesaver to turn any presentation into a template.

On PC

1. Open the presentation in PowerPoint.
2. Navigate to File in the top left corner and then click Export.
3. Select Change File Type and then click Template followed by Save As.
4. Give your template a name. I usually include the word “template” so that it’s easy to identify.
5. After you click Save, the file type will be changed to .potx.

On Mac

1. Open the presentation in PowerPoint.
2. Navigate to File at the top of the screen.
3. Select Save as Template and enter a template name. I usually include the word “template” so that it’s easy to identify.
4. After you click Save, the file type will be changed to .potx.

Quickly Move Multiple Slides at Once

One problem I’ve often run into with longer presentations is rearranging the slide order. As you know, you can easily drag and drop a slide in the left-hand slide preview pane to change its placement but if you need to drag multiple slides from the very end of a presentation to the beginning it can become a bit tedious. Here’s a quick and efficient way to get it done by using sections.

On PC and Mac

1. Navigate to the left-hand slide preview pane and click on the empty space between the two slides where you want your section to start. (Wherever you click, the section will include all slides that follow unless there is another section later in the presentation, then it will include all slides up until that point).
2. A line will appear where your section is to start.
3. Navigate to the Home tab at the top of the screen and click on Section, then Add Section.
4. You can give the section a name or leave it at the default.
5. Click away from the section and it will automatically save.
6. Click on the new section name and it will minimize all of the slides within that section.
7. You can now drag and drop the section name (which includes all associated slides) into a new place on the slide list.

You might also like: Boost Your Efficiency: How to Track Changes in PowerPoint

Add Frequently Used Slide Layouts to Your Master Slide View

The last of my PowerPoint timesavers is for anyone who has ever had to reposition or resize a text box, image, or chart on multiple different slides. This tip walks you through how to create a custom slide layout that you can use again and again!

For PC and Mac

1. Navigate to the View tab near the top of the screen.
2. Click Slide Master.
3. Click Insert Layout and a new slide will be added to the slide master.
4. Near the top left of the screen, click the drop-down arrow next to Insert Placeholder and select the type of placeholders you would like to include on the slide (ex. text, picture, or chart). Add as many placeholders as you would like. Resize and reposition them until your heart is content.
5. The slide will automatically be titled Custom Layout but you can right-click on the slide and rename it if you’d like.
6. When you’re done, click Close Master near the top center of the screen to return to your normal presentation view.
7. The next time you need to use your custom slide layout, from the Home tab, click on the drop-down arrow next to New Slide and then select your custom slide.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve found these random PowerPoint timesavers to be extremely helpful! I’ll be sharing more random timesavers in the near future. Until then, check out my free guide for 7 Easy Steps to a Professional-Looking PowerPoint where I walk you through quick changes that can be made to improve the look and flow of any presentation.

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